The Life Enthusiast Chronicles with Julie

Last month Abby Smith reminded us that we should never turn away from difficulty, that we should embrace it and learn from it to truly live. In my monthly series, The Life Enthusiast Chronicles, phenomenal people from across the globe chat about why life is so amazing.

Today I’m excited to bring you guys this awesome gal in Paris I’m happy to know, Julie Klene from Les Petits Pas de Juls. This lovely thing just makes you smile. Her travel blog is absolutely delightful, with beautiful imagery to compliment her zest for people, culture, and life.

If you need a regular dose of positivity and adventure, I suggest you follow her. You’ll instantly see why I invited her to be a part of this series, because she embodies the Life Enthusiast spirit like it’s nothing.

Connect with Julie on Facebook.

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I don’t know Britt outside of this little space we share on the internet. But I’ve come to see her as someone important, because her words always reach something delicate in me.

I know she has that ability with many more people out there. So, I was very moved when she thought I’d be Life Enthusiast Chronicles worthy.

Thank you, Britt, for trusting me here! 

I don’t know if I’ve always been like that or if it happened slowly over the last few years.

All I know is that I’ve always loved hanging out with friends and family, enjoying the little moments with them, cherishing each kiss and embrace, and the opportunity to take off almost any time to see what it was like someplace else.

Somehow, everything might be related to Dead Poets Society. Robin Williams kind of looked like my dad, and “Seize the Day” has always resounded in me like something I should listen to, in order to avoid that moment “when I came to die, [and] discover that I had not lived” (Henry David Thoreau). 

When I think about it, it must have started a few months after my father passed away; I was 15, he was 42, he shouldn’t have left me there and then.

After he left, I told myself I’d live the life he would have been proud of seeing me live.

A life I’d be proud of too, a life that would bring me happiness, love, and through which I’d be able to share love and happiness around me.

I took every opportunity as the best chance to show him he should have stayed. Him, my uncle, my grand-fathers and my god-father. To show them all they should have stayed.

And then, I flew away.

When I came back to France from living in Montana, USA, as a foreign exchange student when I was 18, I headed straight to the University to become a Sign Language Interpreter because I had discovered in the USA that it was what made me tick—it still does, today!

I found the job of my life and I enjoyed every little thing about it, being the bridge between two worlds, so people from each could reach to the other.

At the same time, I met some super interesting people, who made me discover that I loved bungee-jumping, driving a motorcycle, sky-diving and traveling far.

I got married, thought I was on the right track and fell off my happy cloud when I realized I had completely misjudged that happy moment. But, then, a friend who had gone on her own before-I-turn-30-world-trip, showed me the way again.

After she came back from her trip, I sold everything I owned, took a year off from work and left. As easy as that; it felt right even though I didn’t have a difficult life.

Finding myself on the road by myself (5 months in South America, 1 in Australia, and 4 in Asia) opened my eyes on a world I had only had a glimpse of before, opened my eyes on who I really wanted to be, opened my eyes on Life.

On that road, I realized I loved hiking—and could hike way up high! I loved eating at markets, I loved hearing the locals’ stories, I loved scuba-diving, I loved traveling on my own but also loved meeting new friends along the way.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my brother’s company when we met in Thailand, I learned I could be me even if that new “me” was not what other people would have “me” be.

And, most of all, I met Raul, who is now the best husband I could ever dream of.

I have been traveling for the past 5 years now, Living the Dream. Every time I’m in a new place, I feel like that child in front of a Christmas tree, ready to unwrap all the gifts that place has to offer.

I climb up towers, I hike far, I push myself to the limits, I make new friends, I go back to them, I work in Patagonia because I’ve found there a kind of peace that’s indescribable.

I come back to France and enjoy my birth-country much more that I did before.

I learn.

Back to work now! My friends in France wanted me to stay a little longer and offered me a job position I couldn’t refuse: working in Paris as a Sign Language interpreter again. 

And, although Raul has had to go back to Mexico for a few weeks, I know we’re on the right track, I know we’ll find our own pace, here, there or somewhere else.

Because we have each other and we know what makes us tick.

Travel, Enjoy, Love, Give, Live. And “Carpe Diem” always!   

Jul’